Beautiful World is a stand-out take on modern society's image culture told through a dystopian setting.
In a broken future, ink-like stains have appeared on people's skin splitting the world in two. Now the beautiful people all wear masks and live i...
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In the heart of the third quadrant of the outlands, Anna-Seka sat by the camp fire and gazed up at the stars. It seemed so peaceful. As she lowered her gaze and looked towards the south, she could see a faint glow on the distant horizon. It seemed to pulse and flicker in the darkness. She nodded to herself: 'The festival,' she whispered.
Someone tapped her on the arm. It was Nike. 'Thinking of home?' the Stain-girl asked.
Anna-Seka smiled. 'I like it here,' she said. 'I am among friends, I think.'
There was a silence. The others seated about the fire had stopped talking and were looking at her.
'That's a rare thing to hear someone from the Great City say,' said Bepsi-Loca, putting down his cup. 'You do us honour, lassie.'
Anna shrugged. 'It is easily given. You found me as a stranger, you helped me, even though you are stain-folk and I am . . .' she paused, 'of the City. And now you have given me fire and food and shelter.'
Bepsi-Loca smiled. 'It is our way,' he said. 'You gave us your trust, we give you our fire.'
From the other side of the fire, and almost lost in the shadows, Leviss leaned forward and tossed a branch into the flames. 'Not all the city-folk who come our way are so deserving,' he said. 'They come to spy and to steal, so we welcome them with our arrows and our spear-points.'
'I have heard of this,' said Anna quietly. She looked up at the stars again. 'We can share the stars, why is it that we cannot share the land beneath them?'
Someone laughed, but there was sadness in the sound. 'There is a hunger in your city that cannot be satisfied,' came an aged voice and Anna looked to see one of the elder-folk gazing at her across the fire. His grizzled face had seen many winters, and his shoulders were stooped with years of work in open fields. But his eyes shone in the light of the flames, and his hands were strong about his cup.
'Go on, father,' said Anna-Seka using the term kept for the older citizens of her city.
The man nodded to acknowledge the courtesy, and tipped the dregs of his cup into the flames: 'Your king wants what we cannot give him, so he sends his soldiers to take it from us,' he said. 'And his desire is without end. It is long since that his hunger became greed, and now his greed becomes cruelty. The more he takes, the more he wants. His belly is never full, so that the harder we fight to keep our own, the more fiercely he raises his hand against us.' He reached for a branch and stirred the embers at the edge of the fire. 'It is a kind of madness, I'm thinking.'
'We have many people, father,' replied Anna. 'The streets and markets of Serenity are crowded, always crowded. They have to be fed, and our farms are too small and our cattle and sheep are too few. Where should we go, else we starve?'
'Somewhere else, lassie,' answered the elder. 'And where ever you go, you should think to ask before you take, and not to take the very best. It's better that way, for everyone.'
